The invention concerns a method of centrifuging cheese milk and a centrifuge for carrying out the method.
The conventional method involves skimming the cheese milk in a self-emptying centrifuge and returning some of the separated cream to the skim milk to adjust it to the desired level of fat. The accordingly treated standardized milk is put into another self-emptying centrifuge to precipitate microorganisms and dirt particles.
A centrifuge that can be employed in the second stage of this method will be evident from German AS 2 913 406. It has a drum that rotates around a vertical axis and that raw milk can be supplied to by way of a central intake pipe, a distributor, a separation space with a stack of disks, and a concentrate space, wherein channels for diverting the concentrate extend out of the concentrate space, which is provided with outlets 8 that can be closed with a piston slide 7 and opened to allow the extraction of additional slurry.
Smaller cheese makers often can not support the cost of the two-stage method with its two separate centrifuges and system for returning the cream to the milk in order to standardize the latter.
There are also varieties of cheese that cannot be made from a completely skimmed milk with cream added to it later.